One Russian root word for navel is пуп. That's enough to make any American laugh. And most of us will be so amused that we aren't going to bother to investigate the word further. But here at Russian Word of the Day we pride ourselves on taking interest in all sorts of things that other people simply ignore, and today the belly button is it. It is an end-stressed noun, so it declines like this:

I know, I know: the dative singular made you laugh again.

Anyhoo, пуп is etymologically the source word for navel, one that you will find once in a blue moon in a formal, scientific, or medical context. Thus Russian Wikipedia gives us this info:

But when talking about a person's belly button, the Russians almost never say пуп. Instead they use the end-stressed diminutive пупок.

Sometimes you see belly dancers in movies and you can see their navels, but my mother, who used to take belly dancing classes, tells me that that is a no-no:

Every five or ten years I get into a conversation about the lint that can show up in one's belly button. It seems to be a gender based issue: men have it happen more often than women. Тhe subject was even brought up recently on the web:

One of the amazing things about Russian is that you can make a diminutive of a diminutive, so the dimiminutive of the diminutive пупок is — are you ready for the? — пупочек. This one turns out to be stem stressed:

The word is mostly used to refer to a baby's belly button. There is a bit of a gender difference in the use of this word. Adult men will rarely use it. Mothers and grandmothers will use it more often. (I actually had one Russian man tell me no one used it, but that's simply not true.) For instance, on babyblog.ru I found this little gem:

And as long as we are talking about belly buttons, we should mention the English word omphaloskepsis, which is meditation using the belly button as a focus. That's got nothing to do with Russian. I just really like the word.

I’ll have to admit that I can’t take credit for today’s word of the day: my kitty helped me come up with it. She woke me up this morning by tickling my nose with her tail as she lay comfortably on my pillow. Still sleepy, I tried to move the little bugger without having to get up and inevitably being forced to start my day. After a few unsuccessful attempts to redirect that fuzzy fur piece, I gave up. (It was time to get up anyway ).) Meanwhile, I thought that the word “tail” was worth writing about.

In Russian tail is «хвост». It is a noun of masculine gender. The plural form is «хвосты» and diminutive is «хвостик».

In Russian this word has a few meanings, just like in English. The main one is an animal's body part.

Another meaning is ‘ponytail’ (the hairstyle). For example:

Also, it could mean a tail of something very long, such as a ship or an airplane.

Just like in English, this word can mean to chase or to follow someone.

Also, the word «хвост» has a very interesting meaning in student life. It describes an assignment that a student has not turned in in time, and because of which his grade is pending.

The latter sounds funny and provokes lots of jokes about students literally turning in their tails...

Here is an episode from the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, where the donkey loses his tail!

The Russian word for paw is лапа. It is a perfectly regular second declension noun:

Just as in English, we can use this word when talking to a dog to make him perform tricks:

Unlike English, Russian can produce a bundle of diminutive forms to say the same thing:

Sometimes the word is also used as a derogatory word for human hands as well. For instance, if man makes an unwanted advance, a woman might say:

But the place where this word gets a lot of mileage is in the diminutive лапушка, which is roughly the equivalent of “a sweetie” or “a cutie” in American English. For instance, if your neighbor shows you a boxful of newborn kittens, you might say:

Tanya, who occasionally writes for this blog, has a little dog named Wiggles. Sometimes she will say to him:

And sometimes that form is even used with people:

Сердце is the Russian word for that muscular, blood-pumping organ ticking in your chest known as the heart. And, of course, in various cultures around the world it’s not simply an organ, but also a poetic symbol for love and the spiritual being of a person.

Here are a couple of words and a saying that derive from сердце:

Сердечный— This adjective can be used to describe a medical heart condition or warm feelings. When referring to a heart attack, say сердечный приступ, and when mentioning a close, good-natured friend, say сердечный друг. In medicine, cердечный is usually translated as cardiac.

Сердцеед— A perfect word to describe Casanova, Don Juan and other ordinary, skirt-chasing womanizers who constantly break some poor heart. The term is a combination of the words heart and eater, literally translated as “heart-eater”. Сердцеедкa is used to describe a female with the same qualities.

Сердце не лежит— The saying explains the feelings of someone who is resistant, objecting and just not in the mood for something. For example, “y него сердце не лежит к этой профессии,” can be translated as, “His heart is not really in this profession.”

Here’s a short, vacuous dialogue about heartache between a sorrowful man and his doctor friend.

The Russian word for voice is голос. Notice that it is end-stressed in the plural and has an irregular nominative plural:

Here are a few sample sentences: